One of the large Victorian semidetached houses at St James Terrace, Clonskeagh Road, in Dublin 6, is likely to set a new record for the area when it is auctioned by Sherry FitzGerald later this month. Number 7, a two-storey over garden level house with a superb rear garden and an original stable block has a guide price of £1.8 million - a conservative estimate given the current strong prices being paid for large family homes close to the city centre.
St James Terrace is a row of about 14 houses set well back from Clonskeagh Road close to the junction with Eglinton Road. The houses have generous front gardens and large west-facing back gardens. Number 7 has many of the features that wealthy buyers are seeking in the current market. It is an impressive house with lots of period features, convenient to the city and with plenty of space to extend.
The two-storey coach-house at the end of the garden could be converted to a substantial home office, according to selling agent Simon Ensor. There is no rear access, however, and creating access down the side of the property would destroy the garden.
The house could also accommodate an office; the current owner, a well-known GP, has a consulting room on the ground floor. It is a substantial house with over 3,700 sq. ft of accommodation, all of it in very good decorative order.
There's a car-port to the side of the house and from here it is easy to ferry shopping in through a side entrance to a large, well-fitted utility room.
The ground floor also has a large reception room that would have originally been the kitchen and is now a waiting room that leads directly into the consulting room. There is also a delightful sitting-room, facing the garden, that has sliding doors opening on to a patio. A cellar, cloakroom and lavatory complete the downstairs accommodation.
Upstairs, at hall level, there are two very fine reception rooms - a dining-room at the front and a drawing-room to the rear. These are very elegant rooms with their high ceilings and original fireplaces, the drawing-room the warmer of the two rooms with its wide window overlooking the back garden.
The kitchen is also at this level. Although it is not a very large room it is very bright and cheerful as it too overlooks the garden and has a window to the side of the house.
New owners may be tempted to do the fashionable thing and make a big new kitchen at garden level but the current owners say that it is better to be close to the reception rooms and have an elevated view of the garden.
Upstairs, the four bedrooms are all on a generous scale and the main bedroom has a good sized en suite bathroom.
There is access to the garden from the back of the main hall where a glazed door opens on to a short flight of steps leading down to a patio.
The owner, and her trusted gardener, have spent many years nurturing the lawn and the splendid borders where plants are packed in glorious abundance. It is full of colour, and the turf would not be out of place on a championship golf course.
